Man found guilty of killing woman in car
A Bexar County jury took 41⁄2 hours Friday to find a San Antonio man guilty of murder for fatally shooting a woman who was berating him as his girlfriend gave her a ride home after a night of heavy drinking on Jan. 22, 2022.
His girlfriend, Stacy Page, testified that Felix Jesus Hernandez fatally shot Victoria Alicia Stampley, 42, in the back seat of the car and ordered her to drive around for two hours, despite her attempt to get Stampley to a hospital.
When they returned and dropped her off near her home, Stampley was near death, Page said. First responders found her dead when they were called to the scene hours after the sound of gunfire brought police officers to the same block, where they found only bullet casings.
Page said she and Hernandez were celebrating her birthday at a bar on North St. Mary’s Street called The Mix, and drank vodka from a bottle in the parking lot with Stampley after it closed.
Stampley frequented the St. Mary’s Street nightclub strip and had walked there that night because she had three DWIS and didn’t have a license to drive. Page told the jury that Stampley was too drunk to walk home, so she offered her a ride in her father’s red Dodge Charger to her house on Post Avenue just west of Joint Base San Antonio-fort Sam Houston.
Page estimated her own level of intoxication was “8 or 9” on a scale of one to 10 and acknowledged under cross-examination that she should not have been driving.
While in the car, Page said, Stampley became belligerent and seemed to believe that she was in an Uber, not understanding why Hernandez was in the car with them. Stampley yelled expletives at Hernandez, who got out, opened the back passenger door and shot Stampley four times when they arrived at her house, Page said.
Page said Stampley pleaded with them to take her to a hospital as they drove around. She said she got to Metropolitan Methodist Hospital but Hernandez told her to keep driving and she was afraid of him and complied.
Eventually, the dying Stampley implored them to just take her home, and they did, Page testified. Hernandez carried Stampley out of the car and left her in the driveway of a vacant house on Post Avenue.
Page was a cooperating witness for prosecutors, having reached a deal to have her own murder charge in the case reduced to tampering with evidence in exchange for her testimony.
She and Hernandez both worked to clean up the vehicle at a car wash in New Braunfels after the shooting, with their kids present, according to surveillance video shown to the jury.
Hernandez, 33, faces up to life in prison. A sentencing hearing was set to begin Monday.